Met’s LiDAR-Equipped Jet Unavailable During Crisis

According to this report from the Sunday Times the UK weather service’s only LiDAR-equipped jet was unavailable for 1 week during the volcanic ash crisis. This has prompted some, like Richard Branson to question the validity of the no-fly restrictions.

Branson said: “Behind the scenes our engineers and all the experts were telling us that there was no danger at all to flying and that the danger would have been if we had flown close to Iceland through the volcano.”